To check the Competition's Poster, click here.

On 29 August 2016, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina announced the winners in the International Competition for a Comprehensive Master Plan and Architectural Design of the Science City, which will be built in the 6th of October City. On 15 April 2016, and in a huge celebration held in the Small Theater in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Conference Center, the competition was launched under the auspices of the International Union of Architects.

From the main participants in this huge festival were: Dr. Ismail Seragaldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Eng. Mohamed Abd Elzaher, Governor of Alexandrina, Eng. Hoda ElMikaty, Deputy Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in addition to Dr. Nilkos Ventakaks, representative and member of the International Union of Architects, and Dr. Saifullah Abu El Naja, Head of the Egyptian Section of the International Union of Architects.



Dr. Serageldin asserted that Mr. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi assigned the BA to organize this competition, because of its role in spreading the scientific culture and the mental approach. He also pointed out that these architectural competitions are the perfect way to achieve pluralism and gain openness to the world. In addition to providing opportunities for the submerged talents of youth to participate in major international projects.

Dr. Serageldin announced that Weston Williamson and Partners from the United Kingdom won the first prize and they will be the ones to implement the design of the city. He pointed out that thei design is universal and can be easily divided, so they can build a part and start working on it without having the whole construction done.

Nigom Partnership from Malaysia won the second prize, while Zaha Hadid Architects from the United Kingdom won the third prize. The fourth prize went to Gansam Architects and Partners Co., Ltd from South Korea.

There are four projects who won the Honorable Mention Prize for their remarkable designs: Tsampikos Petras, Georgios Chousos from Greece, Joaquim Caetano de Lima Filho, Daniel Henrique Ribeiro, Giliarde Silva, Guilherme Oliveira from Brazil, Whitespace Architects from United Arab Emirates, and Francisco Jorquera from Spain.

Dr. Nikos Vintekakis congratulated the BA on the excellent organization of the competition, thanking the team who participated in the success of this event, stressing that the judging process was very precise, where the projects were checked without knowing the names of their owners, according the UNESCO’s rules for the international competitions.

Dr. Saif Abu Al-Naja described the BA as an added value to Egypt, where it works on spreading culture and science in the Arab region and the world, stressing that the Ministry of Scientific research assigned the organization of the competition to the BA because of its efficiency and capabilities.

He also explained that the selection of the best design necessitates the existence of a competition between individuals and companies which combine three equations which are diversity, transparency and equal opportunity, and he praised the integrity of the judging process and the multiplicity of nationalities that participated in the competition.

Abu Al-Naja pointed that the BA will organize another festival in September in collaboration with the Union of Architects,  to hand over the awards to the first four winning projects, and to clarify the steps that will be taken after the announcing the winning projects. The public from different governorates will be able to check the designs over the internet with the need to travel to Alexandria to visit the exhibition.

To check the competition’s website, click here.

Eng. Hoda El-Mikaty added that the BA carried out one of the most important national projects in Egypt which is the Egyptian Science City that will be the start of a new era of scientific culture and youth empowerment and simplifying science and the ways to explain the scientific theories and their application in an era of accelerating knowledge production.

A group of international specialists assessed the projects which included Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and Head of the Jury, from Egypt, Dr. Nikos Vintekakis, Representative and Member of the International Union of Architects, Dr. Saifullah Abu Al-Naja, Head of the Egyptian Section the International Union of Architects, from Egypt, Dr. Soha Ozkan, the founder and the chairman of the International Community of Architects and former Secretary General of the award “Aga Khan”, from Turkey, and Dr. Mohsen Mostafafy, Dean of Harvard School of Design, from the United States. In addition to Dr. Claudia Haegnir, former Minister of higher education in France and the Chairwoman of the Science and Industry City, from France, and Michael Sorkin, Architectural writer and critic from the United States of America.









It is worth mentioning that 346 contestant from 45 countries participated in the competition. They were filtered to 142 projects from 32 countries which met the special conditions in the competition. Projects were presented after the announcement of the winning projects in a huge exhibition are built specially for the competition in the Koota Exhibition Area in el-Shatby.